Assistance to enhance commercial poultry production for food security-TCP

The Gambia spends huge sums of foreign currency on imports of poultry and poultry products. To counter this trend, in 2016, FAO and the Department of Livestock Services collaborated in strengthening the capacity of smallholder farmers to address a critical production gap. A one-year FAO-funded TCP project has supported the establishment of 24 commercial poultry production schemes, including 19 broiler and five layer farms owned by poor and vulnerable households. The intervention is envisaged to produce 65 tonnes of poultry meat and 605 000 eggs, helping to satisfy the domestic food demand, increase household incomes, improve nutrition and health, and reduce rural poverty as well as the national imports bill.